I got my runner babies today!!! *PICS*

[tinychicky]

awww, they're so pretty! i just love runner ducks

 

[1lpoock]

Quote:
Send an order form to Holderreads directly for the book. He's the author so support him. I got mine from him and the Book of Geese from him...he even writes a little message and signs his name!

 

[OmaBird]

I ordered my book from Metzer. http://www.metzerfarms.com/BooksAndEquipment.cfm?Category=Book&CustID=92168

I am no expert but you do need both black and chocolate to be able to sex them at hatch. Chocolate is sexlinked recessive to black. The blacks also have to be pure and not split to other colors.

 

[Bryanccfshr]

OK I'll Order from Holderreads. THanks! Sorry for the thread Hijack.

 

[Sweetfolly]

Quote:
I just wanted to elaborate on the whole sex-linkage thing:

You can breed sex-linked Runners by breeding a Chocolate Drake to a Black duck - it does not work the other way around (Chocolate duck/Black drake - in that case, all of the ducklings would hatch black). When you do the Chocolate over Black cross, the female ducklings will be Chocolate like their father and the males will be Black like their mom(s), because the sex-linked brown (and buff) dilution genes pass from father to his daughters.

You can do other sex-linked crosses besides Chocolate/Black. I have a Buff Runner drake over a White duck right now, and it looks like the ducklings are hatching out sex-linked (although the white duck is carrying dilution genes of her own and I don't know what the ducklings are genetically - but I'm getting darker ones and very light ones, and someone who I sold some hatching eggs to just reported that all the lighter colored ones are girls, and the darker ones are boys!).

Basically, for sex-linkage in ducklings, you can breed any drake that carries a sex-linked brown or buff dilution gene to any females who don't. There's a little blurb about it in Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks, and this website is very useful for Runner color genetics in general as well: http://www.luckyhit.net/ducks01.htm

I didn't mean to hijack the thread either, sorry!

Getting back to topic - Mom2Munchkins, your ducklings are gorgeous!